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Tongue in Cheek, a review of a neighborhood battling change

I wrote this for a contest called Hyperlocal, which deals with change in our environment, and how it affects the individual.

They post every entry so it's no success to be posted, and I have 2 likes including my own.

I am not an editor's pick nor am I a popular post.

But here it is:

Shifting View of the
Glenora Skylineby Kenna Mary McKinnon

The Glenora Skyline condominium project, standing tall on
Stony Plain Road and 142nd Street in the City of Edmonton, as viewed
by a Glenora matron, was so undesirable.
Residents of the popular and prestigious neighborhood objected in vain to the
development.

The west arm of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) is scheduled to take
in the Glenora Skyline project and incorporate it into a nice little commuter
ghetto in Glenora. It's touted as a "neighborhood within itself,"
complete with three residential towers, offices and commercial spaces, scenic walkways
and access to buses and LRT, and within walking distance of the lovely river
valley.

Great for the apartment dwellers. With an "acre of
exclusive green space" to themselves, the condo residents will bask in
their proximity to the LRT planned for the area, only minutes from downtown,
and their own community in the midst of an opulent neighborhood.

How did the society matrons and gentlemen lose their clout? Surely they won't put up with these
developments without an expensive opposition, they in their stately houses and
perhaps with disdain for us denizens of the high rise?
The ever shifting skyline as viewed from the top of the
economic ladder, beautiful Edmonton viewed from a luxury one bedroom suite or through
glass walls from a penthouse, oh, the uproar were it rental property!

Riff-Raff

They have a lovely view of a lovely neighborhood. At a
premium price for the privilege of changing the ambience of Glenora, there
won't be any riff-raff in this community.
To me this means progress and a secret snigger at the
discomfiture of an exclusive area of Edmonton.

Neon colored silouhette of a young anarchist

My inner child is about twelve
years old and still a rebel, still hostile toward authority and the presence of
history and refinement of manners, still aching to throw a china teacup across
a perfectly pristine room and spatter a snowy wall with stains.

Is that all
this means, the contemporary room with the grand piano and the orchids,
threatened by 21st century advancements and a subculture of
hipsters? Surely there's more to the story than this.

"Experience a new level of living" the Glenora
Skyline condominium's on-line ads
promote. The convenience of an apartment community within a neighborhood known
for its quaint cul-de-sacs, understated and opulent living style, and quiet
Saturday afternoons; refinement cluttered only by the low rise, renovated
apartments on the northwest corner of the neighborhood, close to Coronation
Park and Westmount Shopping Centre, not really in Glenora at all.

What changed the society matron's point of view?
Little but a whimper is now heard.

Society child kissing a frog prince

The upward thrusting face
of change has made its way into historic Glenora, and I'm saddened but elated,
too, that one of cultured society's last bulwarks is finally threatened.

5 comments:

Yes, that often happens and it's seldom for the better. Neighborhoods go down in value and pleasant living as sometimes transients or others move in, or maybe the zoning changes, or the neighborhood becomes older and no longer vibrant. As the case with the high rise condo, the change was carefully planned. You might recognize the Riff-Raff, then? lol

A lovely written article(tongue in cheek of course!) Seems this applies totaly to the lovely area i live in here on the beaches.......now full of apartments and townhouse living....squeezed together for max. finanial gain. But love how you write.

Thank you, Heather, yes, that happens to lovely old neighborhoods, and it's a shame about Glenora, but that's progress, they say. I heard there were something like 300 new condo buildings going up in the next year or two. Where is the parking? Underground, I guess.